There will be a range of Chinese-built Chryslers based on Chery platforms. Chrysler chief executive Tom La Sorda said: “This is a new business model that allows us to introduce all-new products more quickly with less capital spending.” It is not clear what effect this will have on Chery's own export plans. The company, which is only 10 years old, has commissioned a new range of cars and engines using European consultants. Chrysler will hope they are better than the old Chery models which were based on hand-me-down European designs. One of those, the A15, loosely derived from a 1990s Seat Toledo, sold 15,000 in Russia last year. The A15 is very cheap and now we know why. The Russian car magazine Autoreview crash-tested one using the EU standard and the instrumented dummy was virtually destroyed. The doors sprung open at the start of the impact, the windscreen pillars buckled and the steering column and dashboard were displaced far into the cabin.